Heating on at night???

[Abigailly]

I just wondered if I should be having mine on really, not thinking people shouldn't

Logically I guess it makes sense, maybe it's my generation. When I was young lots of my friends only had a fire (coal or gas) in the living room. I was fortunate enough to grow up with central heating throughout but like the friends with just a fire our heating went on in the morning and off at night.

It's never affected the kids sleeping, although if I wake up for a wee in winter I don't like getting out of bed in the cold

Of course you've never heard of it, you live in Scotland! We're A) A hardy bunch who could probably sleep outside, and B)Have arms shorter than our pockets!

But seriously, I would never dream of putting the heating on at night, although it can be -15 outside and I will still have the window open a notch. And Niamh is the same, a pair of pyjamas is all she wears no matter what the weather. I've never gone in to find her under the covers and she's still always sweating.

And that makes it 2 against 1. So we give my OH an extra duvet.

 

[rosie272]

I don't have my heating on at night either - only an hour between 7-8 for bathtime then that's it! I don't like sitting in the heat, I find central heating really dry. I still sleep with my bedroom window open a crack as well, I just have warmer jammies on.

 

[alicecooper]

I can't imagine not having the heating on in winter at night.

 

[RaspberryK]

Heating on at night? That's what duvets are for.
At the moment ours is on to air washing when i need to and to warm the bathroom for ds bathtime.
In winter we have it set to timer to take the chill off in the morning and evening for 2 hours. We don't have the radiators in bedrooms on at all unless there's ice on the inside of the window.
In really cold weather heating gets boost foe an hour when required.
It's a myth about having heating on low saving energy unless your house is extremely well insulated.
Boilers and radiators are most efficient running at high capacity for a shorter period.
Xx

 

[suzib76]

Well I wonder about that. I can't see how leaving it on for 8 or so hours while I am in bed can be more efficient than putting it off, and on again in the morning

 

[Tigerlilyb]

Well I wonder about that. I can't see how leaving it on for 8 or so hours while I am in bed can be more efficient than putting it off, and on again in the morning

I've heard it compared to boiling a kettle. From cold, it can take a fair while to boil but if you're just reheating a little at a time it takes a very short time comparatively. I'd love to see some numbers on that though.

 

[jd83]

Well I wonder about that. I can't see how leaving it on for 8 or so hours while I am in bed can be more efficient than putting it off, and on again in the morning

I've heard it compared to boiling a kettle. From cold, it can take a fair while to boil but if you're just reheating a little at a time it takes a very short time comparatively. I'd love to see some numbers on that though.

The first house we lived in, we actually asked the electric company about ti because our heater kept breaking. Their first question was whether we had been turning it off during the day, which we had. They said its harder on the entire system to have to start from cold when you turn it on, its actually much more efficient to just turn it down during the day so that its not actively running, but also not "off" to where it gets cold and has to start over at night.

 

[Natsku]

Looked it up, a few sites say its a myth. Oh well, it still doesn't cost me much to keep the heating on all the time (not that I can turn it off anyway) so I don't mind if it costs a bit more - I like to have my home at least 22 degrees all year round!

 

[RaspberryK]

22? Blimey we'd cook in that heat.
Xx

 

[Natsku]

I feel the cold easily!

 

[hattiehippo]

Our heating comes on from 6-8am and then 6-10pm at the mo with the thermostat at 19C. If I'm at home in the winter it stays on all day but unless it's freezing at night it goes off at 10pm till 5am. Last winter I did leave it on a couple of times with the thermostat at 16C so it didn't get too cold but it was a pain getting up to a cool house as you have to turn the thermastat up and down by hand.

As a kid we had solid fuel heating with an open fire. The boiler was not lit till at least the end of October, was banked down overnight to stay just alight and was put out at the end of March. I remember going to bed fully dressed cos it was so cold. My house now is nowhere near that cold even in the middle of winter.

 

[kmumtobe]

Our house drops really cold at night, Los room has two external walls and two windows and drops much colder than the rest of the house so we have a mini radiator in there on a thermostat we leave to keep it comfortable without having to heat the whole house tho often when it's really cold we put it on for an hour when we go to bed just to fall asleep not shivering! I'd never wake from cold then tho. When I was little we'd never of needed it on so must just depend on the house, heating, glazing etc.

 

[April76]

My boy wont sleep with a blanket over him he just keeps pushing it away so i have the heating programmed to come on when the temp drops but only have the hall radiator on.

 

[lovelylaura]

I hate a cold house, i dont have it on a timer but it clicks on when its colder than 18/19. So its mostly on at night too.

 

[Pearls18]

We never leave the heating on over night, never did when I was growing up either, I was always told your body adjusts and sleeps better if you go to bed cool and warm through the night (under your duvet) a couple of times I have left it on by accident and wake up sweating. In fact in our old house we never used to have the heating on upstairs at all, bedrooms were always mild enough and never saw the need to heat them (this was in a newer house that held the heat better though) I've never found it too cold when you're sleeping under a duvet anyway, and DS is always fine, hes always one to overheat, summer was a nightmare. Even with a newborn I won't leave the heating on, will just layer up appropriately. Hate waking up to a cold house though!

I have to say we're in an older, colder house compared to when DS1 was a newborn and the only thing that would make me change my mind is it if is uncomfortably cold during night feeds.

 

[sam2eb]

We don't have ours on a night. My kids are ssweaty monkeys!! Even in the coldest weather they will only need long sleeved jammies and their duvets overnight.

When it gets a bit cooler I will set it to come on a half hour before we get up to take the cold off before we head downstairs.

 

[Gemie]

Our heating is on all the time it's set to come on when the temp drops below 16c we don't have the radiator turned on in our room as its always around 22c in there throughout the year even with the window open a bit. We have the hot water tank attached to our room and its red hot in there.
Always have the radiator on in Poppy's room even though she's quite a warm sleeper it does get cold in there so I like to keep it at a constant 21-22c and that seems fine any lower than that it feels really chilly.
It's definitely more efficient for us to work it like that rather than have it come on at set times in the day/night and the house is always a lovely temp. I do turn it up in the day when it's cold obviously but for the night it's back down to 16

 

[Boomerslady]

My heating doesn't have a timer (if it does I haven't figured it out!!) so when it's really cold at night ill leave it on purely for Bens room, but have his radiator on low. It just takes the edge off and stops you waking up with icy noses!! I turn the radiators off in all the other rooms so hopefully it doesn't cost too much.

 

[ellismum]

Gosh no! It just seems a waste of money when you are under a cover! I layerr Ellis up, socks and vest plus a throw over his duvet. I'd rather pop an extra layer on.

 

[charlotte-xo]

I keep my heating on at night for the same reasons as some of the others. It's alot cheaper to do it that way rather than switching it on and off again. It's in really low like 15 at night. My house is quite big so the rooms get freezing at night. It's alright if you don't have it on though, my mum hates being hot at night so doesn't have it on. I also leave it on because darcey likes to kick her blankets off and socks and she can't seems to keep heat in she's really cold blooded.

Xx